Like the weird car Twitter member that I am, I went inside the Starbucks the owner walked into and chatted him up about his uncommonly clean family van.
I’m on vacation with my family in Palm Springs, CA so I’ve been keeping my eye out, more so then when I’m at home in the Central Valley, for rare and uncommon cars.
As I was getting coffee at Starbucks, I was just about to enter the drive through until this ’90s Plymouth Voyager caught my eye.
Drive around the Central Valley, or anywhere in the United States for that matter and you’ll more than likely run into a Grand Caravan/Voyager like this, without a doubt.
But, what caught my eye about this Voyager was how clean it looked, it was arguably showroom fresh.
The tell that I was looking at something special were the original, undamaged wheel covers.
Here are photos of this one-of-a-kind survivor of a Voyager.
And here’s the best photo I could find of a ’94 Voyager brochure shot showing off those plastic, daisy wheel covers.
As you can see, there are no dings, dents, or signs of major damage.
On top of that, it looked to be freshly washed, garage kept, and was free of sun damaging oxidation.
As the shot of the original wheel covers shows, every corner was shod with matching, new-ish Douglas AS All-Seasons, which is par for the course, maintenance-wise, for how well this van’s taken cared of.
I went into the Starbucks the owner parked at and chatted it up with the owner, who was more than happy to answer my few questions.
Apparently, he’s the original owner, so this is a real deal one owner van.
He only mostly uses it as a “winter” car, which explains how clean it is and the ridiculously low mileage for its age (winter is in quotes as, if you didn’t know, Palm Springs is in the California Desert. There isn’t much of a winter in the traditional sense. High 70s/Low Mid-40s.)
Here’s a shot of the odometer, only 32,534 miles! That’s a hair over a 1,000 miles a year.
With all the new cars out there, especially electric, there’s a case to be made for getting something novel, probably more practical, and new as an around-town car.
Then again, this van’s paid for and is more than up to the task of an out-and-back Starbucks run for those “winter” months.
If it isn’t broke, don’t replace it, amirite?
Props to the owner of this ’94 Voyager for keeping it maintained and using it as a around town car/van for 30 years and counting.
